Making History
About the Bar
SMBA Bar News, July/ August, 2013
By Crista Hogan, Executive Director
The Springfield Bar has a mission statement penned 110 years ago and directs us “to maintain the honor
and dignity of the profession of law, to cultivate social interaction among the members, and for the
promotion of legal science, and the administration of justice.” The mission is prominent on our website,
our business cards and letterhead. It seamlessly connects our past to our present to our future.
In the next few months, our bar will participate in an historic event, promoting legal science and the
administration of justice in the 31st Circuit. We will see a new judge take the bench, selected, for the
first time, through Missouri’s nonpartisan court plan.
Ten years ago our board established the bench and bar committee. The judicial selection process was an
early topic discussed in that committee. The other metropolitan areas in the state had opted in to the
Missouri Plan decades earlier.
The Missouri Constitution specifies the process and the ballot language required for a circuit to adopt
the plan. Since it requires a vote of the people, the merit selection scholars agree that there has to be
some indication of an interest in change from outside the bar. We began to see indications of
community interest in the months following the 2006 election.
In response, SMBA President Steve Garner asked Joe Passanise to chair an ad hoc nonpartisan court plan
committee That committee first met in the fall of 2007 with a half dozen people, most notably, by Chip
Sheppard.
The new committee immediately recognized that a campaign to adopt the nonpartisan court plan in
Greene County would hinge on the leadership of the legal community, but that a campaign committee
should be independent of the bar association. So the first act of the ad hoc committee was to disband.
A new group, Greene Countians for Fair and Impartial Judges, formed with the objective of bringing
merit selection to the 31st circuit.
The next several months were some of the most exciting, exhausting and overwhelming months I have
experienced professionally. It had been thirty-four years since any county in Missouri had adopted the
plan. There was no guidebook, no outline, no experts no notes. There was no apparent recollection of
the details of how it had been done. The Greene Countians had to start from scratch.
The leaders of the effort, driven by Joe and Chip and joined early by John Holstein, anticipated it would
be challenging, maybe even Herculean. I don’t think anyone expected an ending more reminiscent of
David vs. Goliath. I expected it to be a journey with bumps in the road, not a roller coaster travelling at
a speed and travelling a course way out of my comfort zone. But like a roller coaster, there was no
getting off this ride until election day.
The ride was particularly rocky in the final weeks. After months with no indication of challenge,
suddenly, in the last days of the campaign, the opposition mounted a vigorous attempt to defeat the
measure, funded by outside money and outspending proponents by a margin of three to one.
The campaign ended on Presidential Election Day, November 4, 2008. On that day, the Greene County
voters went to the polls to cast ballots for the leaders of our government and while there, 62,478 of
them, a majority of the voters, said yes to merit selection for the 31st Circuit.
Shortly after the election the 31st Circuit Judicial Commission was formed, initially chaired by the
Honorable Gary Lynch. Governor Matt Blunt appointed Linda Fowler and Sally Hargis as the non-lawyer
commissioners. Eight people ran for the two lawyer commissioner positions. Clif Smart and Brent
Green were elected. The commission met, established rules and waited.
Five years came and went. The commission chair passed with the position of Chief Judge of the
Southern District, Judge Lynch to Judge Don Burrell, Sr., and recently to Judge Bill Francis. In 2012 Brent
Green’s term expired and Andy Bennett was elected. And the final transition recently occurred when
Governor Jay Nixon appointed Steven Stepp to replace Sally Hargis. Finally, the wait is over. The 31st
Circuit Judicial Commission is tasked with selecting a panel for the newly created associate judge
position.
After nearly a decade of laying the foundation, state legislator Bob Dixon, now chair of the Senate
Judiciary, led efforts resulting in authorization of two additional associate judges, and funding one in the
state budget. At the July SMBA lunch, Senator Dixon said “this year we threw everything at the wall
hoping something would stick.” And astonishingly, everything did.
In addition to the new judge, the legislature made additional significant strides toward adequate
resources and additional funding for our courts. The 2013 session produced full funding of our family
court commissioners, transferring financial responsibility of three commissioners from our county to the
state. State Representative Kevin Elmer was instrumental in advancing our priorities in the house, and
we are grateful to our entire local delegation. For the first time in a very long time, we have three
members in the state legislature, Kevin Elmer, Kevin Austin and Elijah Haahr and we are appreciative of
their service.
Most of our members are familiar with the adoption of the nonpartisan court plan in Greene County.
Many were involved, contributing generously to the effort. The majority of SMBA are likely also aware
of the long and for many years fruitless process of lobbying for adequate judicial resources, which
finally, this year produced a bumper crop for the 31st Circuit. Perhaps I am the only one who finds this
to be a very exciting convergence of years of complicated but concerted effort. But before it becomes
history, I wanted to write this article, to reflect on the significance of this moment and to specifically
thank Joe Passanise and Chip Sheppard for their leadership and the many others members of this bar
and community who paved the way